The persistent increase in university tuition costs is now commonplace in student life in America and beyond. A sizeable portion of the US student population agitates for state intervention, in the form of loan reform, to remedy the financial difficulties of those burdened with outstanding loans, while others engage outright in debt resistance—such as the 2012 Strike Debt movement. Initiatives like these, though, conveniently neglect the economic principles elucidating the underlying causes of bloated college tuitions and consequent loan debts. The ultimate responsibility for skyrocketing tuition fees is state interference in the economy, not, as is often claimed “market failure”.

This film attempts to blame’s America’s social problems on capitalism. Moore focuses on families who are having their homes repossessed following the mortgage crises during the Global Financial Crisis but fails to explain the link between the relaxation of collateral rules in the US and the eventual crisis in mortgage defaults which followed. To add insult to injury the film fails to even have some humorous moments that were frequent in his previous films.

Che (2008)

This four-and-a-half-hour long biopic about the notorious central American guerrilla revolutionary Che Guevara glorifies an individual who was responsible for murderous violence. The left loves to idolize Che, finding in him some deluded idea which resonates with their modern day socialist thought bubbles. Che only tolerated his own interpretation of socialism and the consequences for those who disagreed was death. This film fails to give an objective portrayal of Che and thus comes across as a deliberate attempt to patch up the fallings of socialism through creating an artificial hero.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Arguably the most controversial of Michael Moore’s projects, this film seeks to legitimize the outrageous conspiracy theory suggesting that the 9/11 Terror attacks were organised by the US Government. Moore used the film as a running commentary for all that he felt was wrong with the George W. Bush Administration, going so far as to criticize Bush for his initial reaction upon hearing of the 9/11 attacks.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

This film brought Al Gore back onto the political stage after his failed bid for the US Presidency in 2000. It was enormously successful as a documentary, thanks largely to the free publicity it received from the media. This film takes advantage of people’s emotions by using alarmist forecasts, many of which have since been proven to be false.

Noah (2014)

On face value this should have been a memorable film for the right reasons, a strong cast including Russell Crowe and Emma Watson in a Biblical Epic. The problem was that the film in fact is anything but Biblical. Religious references were entirely removed from the film and replaced with humanist and environmentalist ideologies. Rather than being portrayed as a God-fearing man, Noah is an environmentalist who is saved by God simply because of his green credentials.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

The characters playing the President and Vice-President of the United States look strikingly like President George W. bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Bush and Cheney of course are climate change sceptics as their cinematic counterparts. In the film, the President is killed and while the Vice President is humbled into having to accept the consequences of our actions. To add insult to injury the Americans are forced to accept sanctuary in Mexico. This film is yet another example of the doomsday scare campaign surrounding the climate change debate.

The Lorax (2012)

Based on a Dr Seuss’s children’s novel, the Lorax focuses on a protagonist who grew up in an artificial world devoid of any form of trees due to them producing oxygen free of charge and consequently destroyed by the antagonist who is portrayed as a businessman. Such portrayal of logging and free enterprise is inaccurate, given that businesses do not advocate charging for oxygen and the fact that loggers plant more trees than they cut down.

“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric” Thomas Sowell

The author of more than 40 books on history, economics and sociology, Thomas Sowell is one of America’s most formidable public intellectuals. This quote comes from Sowell’s classic book ‘A Conflict of Visions’ which explores the differences in values and assumptions between progressives and conservatives.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Ronald Reagan

Arguably the most iconic freedom loving American President in recent history, Ronald Reagan helped bring and end to the Cold War and liberate millions of people from communist rule.

“Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.” Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s first post apartheid President and fought tirelessly to end his country’s regime of state imposed racial segregation. Having spent more than five decades in prison, Mandela knew better than most how important that freedom is to unlocking human potential.

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” -Milton Friedman

Often credited as the most influential economist of the 20th century, Milton Friedman is remembered as one of the most convincing critics of using a state run economy to make society more equal.

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” George Washington

As one of America’s founding fathers, George Washington understood the importance of free speech to holding government to account and preventing abuses of power.

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Federick Bastiat was one of the early pioneers of the classical liberalism and is renowned for developing the key economic concept of opportunity cost and the parable of the broken window. Bastiat’s work laid the intellectual foundations for the Austrian school of economics, a major influence over modern libertarianism.

If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.”Margaret Thatcher

Like most crackpot conspiracy theories, there is no unified theory among so-called ‘9/11 truthers’ as to why exactly the US government decided to orchestrate a fake terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre (possibly with the help of Mossad). But they know one thing almost for certain: the US government did it for some reason.

The Guardian recently published an editorial reiterating many of the concerns of both the populist right and regressive left: that ever-greater global integration and competition has been to the benefit of the few, whilst inequality increases amongst the poor. In one sense, this sentiment is correct – we should care about how global trends affect outcomes for the most disadvantaged; but this is exactly why we should embrace globalisation. Individual nations, and the world as a whole, are miraculously better off due to the increasing free-flow of goods, knowledge, and people, even as certain sectors are harmed by the side effects of this creative destruction.

After more than fifty years of torture, murder, and imprisonment, Fidel Castro has died and most of the world has breathed a collective sigh of relief. In Miami, the large community of exiled Cubans took to the streets, singing ‘he’s gone, he’s gone!’, unable to contain their joy and sheer exultation at the news.

Since his death, there have been some surprisingly flattering sentiments expressed about Castro by certain parties, namely various leaders of the free world. Canadian Prime minister, Justin Trudeau eulogised that the dictator was a ‘larger than life leader and a ‘controversial figure’, who had a ‘tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people.’ Meanwhile, over in the European Union, Jean Claude Juncker lamented the fact that ‘the world has lost a man who was a hero for many’, and the President of Ireland learned ‘with great sadness of the death of Fidel Castro.’